Her spirit is inside me.
A shiver runs through me. That’s why it’s been so overwhelming, why I’ve felt like someone else at times. And just a minute ago she was able to take me over so completely.
God help me. It’s getting worse.
And now I’m with Kieran. Who I’m not even sure I can trust.
“How do you know all of this?” I ask.
His voice drops so that I can barely hear him. “My brother.” I open my mouth to ask what he could possibly mean—the king is dead—but he cuts me off, saying, “I’ll explain, I swear, but first we need to hide you from the creature trying to poison you.”
I thought that was him.
“Faelan is being brought up momentarily,” he adds. Then he tips his head, giving me a curious look. “But you don’t seem to be terribly worried about him.”
“Oh, God. Faelan!” I can’t believe I forgot for even a second.
“I assumed you’d accost me the moment I came into the room. I should have known something was amiss when you didn’t.”
I shake my head, overwhelmed, confused by his shift to semicongeniality. This isn’t a side of Kieran I’ve seen before; I have to wonder if it’s real. I’d be stupid to buy into anything he says. But right now my mind is exhausted from the shock of what just happened. All my guards are down.
“I know you don’t trust me,” he says, like he can see the turmoil on my face. “That’s fair. I’m not known for my subtlety.”
“You slit my throat,” I say to remind myself yet again. But my voice is weak, so I add, “And broke Faelan’s neck.”
“Whatever you think of me,” he says, a defensive bite in his tone, “the moment in the alley was necessary. I needed to see why your energy was off—any weakness in you could have been exploited by others. It was better you die than become a weapon. So I had to be sure you were truly a second Daughter of Fire. We have seen that you are.” He motions to me, like my presence proves his point. “I was hoping you’d come to trust me in time.”
“So you made sure that you controlled my ability to use my own power?” I say, reaching up to touch my torque. “How is that supposed to make me trust you?”
“It needed to be me to place the torque—so that no one could manipulate you.”
“You mean, like you have? Killing me, taking my free will, and kidnapping me.”
“I kidnapped you to help you.”
“Said every serial killer ever.”
“There are eyes watching,” he says, his tone getting tense, “creatures listening. I needed to speak with you away from all the spies—are you telling me you’d have come willingly?”
“You didn’t have to break Faelan’s neck!”
He pauses and then smirks as he says, “Snapping that plant-eating bastard’s spine was just a bonus.”
I rise from the chair in a rush. “You’re a snake and a liar!”
He tsks at me. “Manners, princess. I may be a snake but I’ve never lied to you. I’ve only been completely honest.” He pauses as a knock sounds on the door, then adds, “Unlike others in your life.” He holds my gaze as he waves his hand, opening the door from across the room. “Speaking of the hunter . . .”
A tall man drags Faelan in and drops his limp body in the middle of the floor before walking back out, slamming the door behind him.
I rush to Faelan’s side and roll him onto his back. His face is swollen, nearly unrecognizable. A giant torque is around his neck, like the one he put on me that first night, and I know that’s what’s kept him from healing completely. He’s breathing, though. He’s alive.
“Can you hear me, Faelan?” I reach out to pull the torque off. A burst of pain runs through my arm as it sizzles against my skin.
I stumble back, cradling my hand to my chest.
“It’s locked,” Kieran says behind me. “Only I can take it off, since I placed it there.”
“Then get it off him,” I say through my teeth.
“Very well,” Kieran says, sounding disappointed but giving up far more easily than I thought he would.
He kneels behind Faelan and draws a dagger from his boot, then pricks his thumb with it.
Blood pearls at the tip of his finger, and he slides it over the edge of the torque, smearing red on the metal with a hiss. It unlatches with a clink and falls to the side.
Faelan’s features immediately begin to return to normal as the swelling goes down. Several bruises remain, though, and a cut on his cheek doesn’t fully heal. He must need to feed. He probably used most of his energy to heal his spine before Kieran put the torque on him.
He opens his eyes. “Sage?”
“Are you okay?” I ask, brushing the hair from his forehead.
He begins to sit up, his features clenched in pain. And then he spots Kieran only a foot away from me. He goes still. “Get back, Sage,” he says, his voice deadly.
“Now, now,” Kieran says, his haughty tone returning in full force. “Can’t we be civil?”
“Civility went out the window when you kidnapped us,” I say.
He gives me a tired look. “Haven’t we been over this? I’ve told you why I brought you here.”
I help Faelan to the chair, and then I turn on Kieran, sick of his games. “What the hell do you really want from me, Kieran?”
His head pulls back. “I’m protecting you, obviously.”
I release a derisive laugh.
“Or did you miss the dead pixie in your cottage?” he asks.
I gape at him.
“How do you know about Niamh?” Faelan asks, his voice thick with warning.
But I don’t care how he knows. “You know who did it,” I say, suddenly very sure. “Spit it out.”
He goes over to the hearth, pulling out the poker and nudging the embers with it. He turns and swings the poker as if it were a sword. “I’m fairly sure it was my sister,” he says.
Wait, what?
“I thought Princess Mara wanted Sage for your House,” Faelan says, echoing my confusion. “Why would she hurt her?”
“Mara is . . . shall we say, a complex creature,” Kieran says. “She’s insecure and has always been jealous of anything her brothers aren’t cruel to.” He looks at me. “She does want the power you can bring, Sage. She was going to draw you in, control you, in order to get it. But she grew impatient when she saw how attached you were to this hunter. She sees you the same way she saw Queen Lily: as a threat. So she sent the poison, wanting you to be as pliable as possible when the Emergence came around.”
“Does she know about Lily and me?” I ask, my nerves turning raw as I realize what I’m up against.
Kieran shakes his head. “And she can never discover it.”
“Know what?” Faelan asks.